


You Can't Change the Past

by FawnoftheWoods



Series: Not Alone Anymore [10]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt Tony Stark, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Protective Clint Barton, Protective Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-02-07 17:29:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12846018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FawnoftheWoods/pseuds/FawnoftheWoods
Summary: The rest of the Avengers discover the truth about Tony's 3 month vacation.  Could stand alone.





	You Can't Change the Past

Steve waved at Pepper as she left.  She had stopped by for Tony’s signature and to discuss something serious enough that Tony was now locked in his workshop.  Pepper had sent Bruce down to try to help Tony.  Thor and Steve had offered to sit with her and drink cocoa/coffee to calm her down.  She was frazzled and clearly upset.  

Two coffees and a bunch of Asgardian jokes later, she was leaving looking a bit less upset.  Steve turned to Thor who was still grinning at the last joke, only part of which made any sense, but Thor’s laugh had a way for making others chuckle with him.

“I think we cheered Lady Pepper.”  Steve nodded.  “She looked like she needed it.  Whatever Tony was up to, really upset her.”  Thor frowned.

“I do not believe it was the Man of Iron who upset her, but rather Lady Pepper who had the upset to deliver.”  Steve looked at him questioningly.   “Lady Pepper looked upset when she arrived but Friend Tony was quite amicable this morning.  Usually Friend Tony hides all morning if he is avoiding Lady Pepper.”  Steve blinked and thought back.

“You’re right.  So what kind of news would Pepper bring that would cause such a big issue?”

“Business?”  They turned to see the assasitwins walk in, back from the gym for lunch.  “If a part of the business is having issues due to Tony’s rep, that usually causes this problem.”  Natasha sat down as Clint started pulling out sandwich bits.  Thor glanced at her in question.

“Rep?”  Steve nodded.  “Reputation.  What could Tony have done recently though?  He’s not been negatively in the papers in a while.”  Tasha shook her head.

“He’s been getting some comments on his productivity declining due to his time on the Avengers.  He also takes a lot of crap during those press releases directly following any avengers mission that hits the news.”  Steve felt his back straighten in the perceived threat to his teammate.

“They blame him?”  

Natasha stabbed her potato salad as Clint sat across from them.  “He takes the blame.”  

Steve blinked in surprise then in irritation.  “He just-“

“No.”  Tasha cut him off.  “He doesn’t out right take the blame.  He defends and deflects comments about every other member of the team save himself.  The end result is being blamed, without ever saying anything.”  She took another bite as Clint continued the thought.

“Pepper even asked us to look into some hate mail directed at Tony twice.  Nothing came of it.”  Steve probably looked stupid gaping at them.  When he finally could speak, he was rather pissed.

“He’s taking that for the team!  I’m going to kill him!”  Thor spoke up here for the first time in a while.  “Mayhap, Lady Pepper already is doing so.  Friend Tony seems to find such admonishments normal and ignores them.”  Steve glared at him a moment before sliding his gaze to the others.

“We’re a team.  We are supposed to have each other’s back and you have been letting him-“

“Woah Woah, there was no letting by anyone.  Nat and I intercept as much of this crap as we can, but he won’t let us go public.”  

Steve regarded the two before deflating a bit.  “I’m sorry.  I just…Tony is too self-sacrificing sometimes.”  They all nodded.  This was when Natasha noticed a flashdrive on the countertop.

“What’s this?”  

Steve glanced at it  “I think Pepper left it.”  

Natasha fingered it a moment before pocketing.  “I’ll return it this afternoon.”  

“Wait!”  She glanced at Steve who was frowning.  “That is probably what she came to talk to Tony about today.”  

Natasha nodded cautiously.  “If you are about to suggest what I think you about to suggest then don’t.  I like to not interfere in Pepper’s business when possible.”  

Steve glanced at them both.  “How do you normally intercept  the crap?”  

Natasha grimaced as Clint grinned.  “Like this, one of them gets frazzled enough to let something slip and we pick up the slack.”  Natasha’s glare could have peeled paint, but resentfully nodded.  

Thor still looked unsure.  “Mayhap, we should simply ask Friend Tony what the drive contains.”  Clint snorted.  Natasha even looked skeptical at that suggestion.  

Steve was the one that voiced it though,  “He’d never tell us either way.  If it’s not an attack on Tony, we’ll just close it and Tasha can give it to Pepper.  No harm.”  Natasha finally nodded and grabbed her laptop from her bag by the counter.

“Fine.”  

The four of them gathered to see the machine whirl.  Thor and Steve were still getting used to the device.  Natasha frowned as she accessed the drive.

“It just has video files.  Four of them.  Nothing more.  They are labeled: Proof of life, Terms, Last Chance, and Invitation.”  

Steve frowned as he looked at them.  Clint was the one to speak.  “Those are kidnapping terms.”  Steve and Natasha looked at each other in alarm.  “Someone was kidnapped?  And Tony is dealing with this alone?” 

Steve frowned and shook his head.  “Not alone.  We are a team.  Play the first one.”  Natasha glanced at Thor, who nodded, all serious now.  Natasha opened it and hit the translate button on the screen.

“ _ You directed us to the wrong convoy, Mr Stane.  Instead of your enemy, we now have your ally. _ ”  They saw a dirt covered and injured Tony dragged into the screen.  All four of them froze in horror.  Their friend was barely conscious.  There was a slab of metal attached to a car battery attached to his chest.

“ _ He says he will not build me a Jericho Missile _ ” The man reached back and grabbed Tony’s hair and without warning plunged the engineer’s head into a barrel that apparently contained water.  He held it there while he continued to talk.  “ _ If you want your partner home alive, you will give me the Jericho Missile. _ ”

Tony’s arms were becoming more frantic as he fought for air.  The man pulled him out of the water.  A punch and swearing from a guard had Tony dropping the car battery he had been holding.  Immediately the water was electrified as the cap on his chest came loose and Tony groaned as he collapsed on the floor amidst the laughter of the guards.  They picked the engineer up again, shoving his battery into his arms before submerging his head again.

“ _ You have 1 hour to respond or I shall leave him in the water…Permanently _ ”  The video ended there.  It was frozen on the last screenshot of Tony with his head in the barrel, trying to fight for air.  The four avengers were likewise frozen.

Slowly Natasha woke first and closed the screen and ejected the drive.  She just held it in her hands a moment before she licked her lips and spoke.

“Tony wasn’t returned.  He escaped on his own 3 months after he was captured.”   

Thor solemnly placed his hand over hers.  “The Man of Iron has experienced  the horrors of battle even I have not in my several hundreds of years.”  

Steve winced.  “This wasn’t a battle.”  

_ We are not soldiers! _

Tony’s experienced more closely matched Bucky’s than Steve’s from the war.  He wished more than ever his best friend was here to talk to him.

“The other three videos were labeled Terms, Last Chance, and Invitation.  This one was the proof of life.”  Clint’s observations were made in a cold voice.  Natasha nodded.

“Obidiah Stane didn’t pay the ransom.  Shortly after Tony returned, Stane betrayed Tony and he was forced to kill the man.”  Natasha bit her tongue as she remembered the rest of the intel, putting it together now.  “He was a damn traitor.”  She threw her laptop on the counter and her glass at the sink, shattering it.  The others were now looking at her in question.  She bit her lip as she organized her thoughts a bit.

“Stane stole the reactor to use to continue to make weapons for the DoD and possibly SHIELD.  He was trying to make a suit of his own.  He succeeded.  Of course he succeeded.  He taught Tony everything Howard Stark didn’t get the chance to teach him.  It wasn’t a big leap to assume this was something he could do also.”  She got up to pace, her fist were shaking as she forced herself to continue with the facts.

“Stane had taken over on Tony’s behalf after his parents died.  He was only 16 and still in college.  When he turned 21, Stane turned it over to Tony.  But he still made all the business decisions.  Tony was the face, the reputation and the engineer, but Stane was the businessman, the lawyer and the drive behind SI for years.

“Then Tony returned from his desert foray and shut down SI’s most profitable sector, he started actually doing his job, including tracing their sales.  I did the work myself, Stane was selling under the table, embezzling I thought.  We thought he tried to kill Tony that night because Tony found out.  We were supposed to think that!”  She punched a wall.

“Agent Romanov, please do not damage the walls there, that is a support wall.  The wall to your left is far less crucial.”  JARVIS’s comment made them all freeze. “Please deposit the drive in the drawer on the far left table.  I will secure it until Miss Potts can retrieve it.”  The threat of JARVIS was subtle but clear.  Natasha placed the drive in the drawer without hesitation.

“Is he okay?”  JARVIS seemed to regard Natasha a moment.

“Sir is not in danger.  Complete this conversation within the next 20 minutes or moving it to a non-common area would be preferable.”  

Steve stood.  “Thanks JARVIS.”  He turned to Natasha.  “Can you finish in 20?”  She growled.

“Not much left to say.  Try this one for size.  Tony’s connections to the army and SHIELD are personal and thus would never buy from Stane without his knowledge.  So who do you think Stane was selling to?”

Steve blinked at Clint swore.  “The bastard was the one to order the hit.  He was the fucking traitor.”  

Thor glowered at them now.  “This Stane was Friend Tony’s mentor for many years.  I hope his blood rains in Helhiem!”  

“Tony and Pepper killed him quite explosively.”  Natasha grinned maliciously at that.  

Steve nodded.  “Okay.”  He ran a hand through his hair.  “Okay.  We’re all pissed, I get that, but if I understood JARVIS correctly Tony will be up here in less than 10 minutes.  So bury that anger.  Tony doesn’t need to talk about this if he’s already talking about it with Bruce.”  

Clint nodded.  “Bruce would be able to give Tony what he needs if Pepper had to review these videos with him.  If he needed to talk, they would talk, if he needed a distraction, Bruce would help him build one.”  

“Right, so when they walk in, if either of them is in a good mood, go with it and we’re having a movie night.  He mentioned once that he likes a movie called Meet the Robinsons and we haven’t gotten to it yet.”  Natasha and Thor nodded.  Clint raised an eyebrow, a show of his slowly returning sense of humor.

“And if they aren’t in a good mood?”  

Steve opened his mouth to answer when the elevator dinged and they heard the two geeks come off it bickering back and forth about the efficiency of something or another.  He glanced over to see Tony excitedly waving his hands as Bruce dragged him towards the kitchen, a common enough sight when the scientist was hungry, since Tony never remembered food.

“There you are!  Movie night!”  Steve’s voice felt forced, but luckily Clint was a way better actor.  He swung over and grabbed Tony with an arm around the shoulders as the billionaire protested.

“But Movie night is Thursdays!”  

Clint grinned.  “Impromptu bonding night!”  

Natasha grinned and grabbed Bruce, sandwiching the two genius’s between them.

“We’ll watch Meet the Robinsons”  Her singsong voice showed that she knew what that meant to Tony and his eyes lit up before sighing dramatically.  Thor whooped and Steve grinned.  He turned to walk into the kitchen area, calling out that he was making popcorn.  The rest of them journeyed to set up the pillows that were the movie night norm.  

Once out of sight and the popcorn started, he leaned back against the wall and sighed heavily.  Checking on his privacy, he muttered to the wall.  “JARVIS?”

“Captain?”

“Can Tony swim after what happened?”  

“What is the purpose of your request?”

“I know you are aware of my panic attacks when I enter cold water.  Bruce has started steering it away from me or being there when I panic and can’t breath.  Is someone there for Tony?”  

“Dr Banner is aware of most of Sir’s triggers.”  

“Can you give me a code word, a warning so if a trigger happens to him in the field, I can get help to him?”  JARVIS appeared to think about it.

“I shall contact you on a private channel.   I can remotely control the suit Sir is wearing at any time.  What code word would you like to use?”

“Iceberg.”


End file.
